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I'll win you no prizes, Nobel-worthy I'm not
But when you're lost for words, I can help quite a lot
And sometimes, if you're askin', I'm the best hope you've got
To signal your intentions to far away spots

So loosen up, think sideways, you know it's okay
Make a symbolic gesture and try me today
Leave a mark, add a dash of good taste, and employ me
But please don't overdo it, so all could enjoy me

Who am I?

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  • $\begingroup$ A dictionary? Or a thesaurus? $\endgroup$
    – Beastly Gerbil
    Commented Mar 22, 2016 at 19:06

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I think, in fact, you're:

An emoticon.

I'll win you no prizes, Nobel-worthy I'm not

A lot of authorities look down on emoticons.

But when you're lost for words, I can help quite a lot

Emoticons fill in the blanks and can indicate humor, irony and sympathy.

And sometimes, if you're askin', I'm the best hope you've got

Or sometimes a big-eyed emoticon will get someone to help you out when they are reluctant to do so. From OP: "askin'" is a play on "ascii'ing"

To signal your intentions to far away spots

Often used in chat rooms

So loosen up, think sideways, you know it's okay Make a symbolic gesture and try me today

These would be typographical emoticons ;)

Leave a mark, add a dash of good taste, and employ me

Marks and dashes are used to make emoticons

But please don't overdo it, so all could enjoy me

Too many emoticons can become annoying and obscure the message.

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  • $\begingroup$ Perhaps it's emoticons? "To signal your intentions to far away spots" — they are often used in social media to msg across the world. And it fits the other clues. $\endgroup$
    – Shuri2060
    Commented Mar 22, 2016 at 22:26
  • $\begingroup$ @QuestionAsker That sounds right. Good thought. Put it in an answer. $\endgroup$
    – Hugh Meyers
    Commented Mar 22, 2016 at 22:28
  • $\begingroup$ I'm afraid the credit doesn't go to me. You did most of the work :) — You should edit your answer $\endgroup$
    – Shuri2060
    Commented Mar 22, 2016 at 22:29
  • $\begingroup$ @QuestionAsker There we go. I actually had most of it written out but couldn't bear to overwrite my original answer. $\endgroup$
    – Hugh Meyers
    Commented Mar 22, 2016 at 22:51
  • $\begingroup$ you missed a small wordplay on line 3: "askin'" <--> "ASCII-ing". $\endgroup$
    – user17947
    Commented Mar 23, 2016 at 2:25
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I think you are

A hyphen.

I haven't worked out all the clues, though.

No prizes could be a reference to the hyphenated no-prize. Lost for words means replacing the end of a sentence with a hyphen. "To signal your intentions" refers to dashes being used in morse code. "Think sideways" means it's a sideways line. "A symbolic gesture" means it's a symbol. "Leave a mark, add a dash" is pretty obvious. "Please don't over do it" could be a reference to the perpetual holy wars over how many dashes you need in a row in various circumstances.

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  • $\begingroup$ Nice answer, but that's not it. $\endgroup$
    – user17947
    Commented Mar 22, 2016 at 20:17